Crestron Adds Home-Automation, Multiroom-AV Products

Crestron is coming to the CEDIA EXPO with a variety of home-automation and multiroom-AV products, including its first 4K-capable HDBaseT extenders and first H.264 video-streaming cards for its DigitalMedia card-based matrix switchers.

Crestron is coming to the CEDIA EXPO with a variety of home-automation and multiroom-AV products, including its first 4K-capable HDBaseT extenders and first H.264 video-streaming cards for its DigitalMedia card-based matrix switchers.

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Crestron is coming to the CEDIA EXPO with a variety of home-automation and multiroom-AV products, including its first 4K-capable HDBaseT extenders and first H.264 video-streaming cards for its DigitalMedia card-based matrix switchers.

Crestron’s HD-EXT3-C consists of a single-gang HDBaseT extender and a black-box receiver that can be mounted behind a display device.

The company is also announcing that Yale wirelessly controlled door locks now integrate with Crestron home-control systems.

Separately, Baldwin announced that it will add wireless control from Crestron’s systems to keyless-entry deadbolt locks that already incorporate wireless ZigBee. A ship date hasn’t been announced.

For the multiroom-AV market, Crestron is adding the HD-EXT3-C and HD-EXT4-C 4K-capable HDBaseT extenders, both of which consist of an extender and a receiver. The extenders transmit HDMI audio and video, plus RS-232 and IR control signals, up to 330 feet (100 meters) using a single, low-cost CAT5e cable. Extenders can be mounted in a single-gang wall box with black or white faceplates, though the transmitters can also be rack-mounted. An HDMI input and control-signal inputs appear on the front of the faceplate, and an HDBaseT output appears on the back. The receivers are small black boxes that can be mounted behind a display device.

Both extender pairs handle Full HD 1080p60 and 4K Ultra HD with support for HDCP, 3D, and Deep Color. Full HD 1080p60 is supported up to 330 feet, but 4K Ultra HD is limited to 230 feet (70 meters) or less. For audio, the extenders support 7.1 Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio and uncompressed linear PCM.

In addition to HDMI, the extender pairs are also compatible with DVI and DisplayPort Multimode sources and DVI display devices using adapters or interface cables.

The HD-EXT4-C adds the ability to transmit an analog-audio signal to support DVI devices and select HDMI devices that might not support digital audio. In that case, an additional twisted-pair cable has to be installed between the sender and receiver.

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The company’s card- and blade-based DigitalMedia matrix switchers, ranging from the 8x8 model to a 128x128 model, currently don’t support 4K but will be enabled with 4K with the introduction of future I/O blades, cards, transmitters, and receivers, the company noted without specifying a launch date.